Fool's Journey
by The Uncreative
Summary: Zero. A number that is empty, yet holds infinite possibilities.
1. Chapter 1

**Author Notes:**

Oh boy, Wild Card Louise? This is going to be fuuuuuuun. So yeah, if you hadn't figured it out this is basically just going to be a Persona story, but set in the Familiar of Zero world. Personas, hijinks and social links shall ensue and I'm going to have so much fun. Who's going to join the team? What personas will they have? What story arcs will make up the social links? Heck, who's actually going to be a social link? Who will be the canon love interest, assuming we actually have one? We'll get to all of that in due time.

Oh, since you might be wondering, the bolded sections that appear to offer different dialogue options are my attempt at mimicking the dialogue choices of the Persona games. What fun is a Persona game where you can't choose your dialogue? If you see a dash next to one of the options, that means that's the one Louise picked. Since Louise isn't a silent protagonist we get the best of both worlds, dialogue and dialogue choices! While she probably won't be going for the jackass dialogue options, I'll have plenty of fun coming up with them.

Since this is just the prologue and the actual story won't start for another dozen chapter, we'll have plenty of time to actually discuss what's going on later. See you next time.

**Prologue**

A soft melody fills my ears as I slowly start to wake up. I don't recognize where I am. This room's not very large, and I think it's moving. I must be in a carriage or something, but it's moving too fast to be a normal carriage. The word "train" pops into my mind, not that that clears anything up. Sitting across from me is an older looking man with an exceptionally long nose. Off to his left is a mature looking woman with blondish hair.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," the man with the long nose says. "It seems we have a quest with an intriguing destiny. My name is Igor, I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It is a room that only those who are bound by a contract may enter. It may be that such a fate awaits you in the future. Now then, why don't you introduce yourself?"

"My name is Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere," I reply.

"Hm… I see," Igor says. "Now, Louise, do you believe in fortune telling?"

"I wouldn't be shocked if someone had a talent for reading someone's future," I tell him.

A deck of cards appears on a small table in front of Igor. He waves a hand over it and three cards appear next to the deck.

"Each reading is done with the same cards, yet the result is always different," Igor says as her flips the cards over. "Truly interesting, isn't it?"

"I've never heard of reading the future using a set of cards," I say.

"The customs of one world mean little to another," Igor says.

"So what do the cards say?" I ask.

"Hmm, it seems that a great misfortune will befall someone, and a mystery will be thrust upon you," Igor tells me.

**- Great misfortune?**

**Mystery?**

"All in due time," Igor says, dodging my question. "In the coming days you will enter into a contract of some sort, after which you will return here."

"Contract… You mean the familiar summoning ritual?" I ask. It's the only contract that comes to mind.

"The coming year is a turning point in your destiny," Igor again ignores my question. "If the mystery remains ignored, the future of your world may be forever lost."

"What's that mean?" I ask. "The future of the world? You mean like an apocalypse or something of that nature?"

"Possibly," Igor says. "My duty is to provide you assistance, to ensure that such a fate does not befall your world."

Igor waves his hand and the cards disappear from the desk.

"Ah! I have neglected to introduce my assistant," Igor says. "This is Margaret. She is a resident of the Velvet Room, like myself."

"My name is Margaret," she repeats. "I am here to accompany you through your journey. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"A pleasure to meet you," I say.

"There are many other details that we shall attend to at another time," Igor says. "Until that time, farewell."

Once he finishes his sentence, everything starts fading away into darkness and I lose consciousness.

***Scene Break***

"Aaaa. My head hurts," I say as I pull myself into a sitting position. "What was that? What a weird dream."

A weird dream in a weird room with some weird people. Just shake it off, no need to think about it for any longer then I need to. I've got other things I need to focus on. Like the summoning thing. Right. I'm going to summon a familiar and everything's going to be alright.

I didn't have a very easy time focusing on any of my classes that day, I was too busy thinking about the upcoming familiar summoning. It's not an exaggeration at all to say that this is the most important moment of my life. I will summon a familiar. I have to. I may have never cast a spell properly before, but I'm not a zero. I'm the third daughter of the Valliere family. I'm going to summon the best familiar ever. I am going to summon a familiar. I am going to summon a familiar.

I repeat those words of encouragement (not really encouraging, but it's the best I've got) over and over to myself as I walk to the courtyard where the familiar summoning is to take place.

"Watch out!"

"Eh? Ahh!"

I was so focused on repeating that stupid thing to myself that I didn't notice the girl sprinting down the hallway. We collided with each other and fell to the ground with a loud thud.

"Ow ow ow," the girl says. "Hey, you alright?"

"I've been worse," I say.

"Oh, that's good," she says, pulling herself to her feet. She offers me a hand, which I take, and she helps me to my feet. "Sorry I can't do any more then this, I have to go!"

The girl gives me a quick salute and takes off down the hallway. Not long after she disappears from view, one of the teachers, Miss Chevreuse I think, came down the same hallway.

"Miss Valliere, you wouldn't have happened to see someone come down this hallway, did you?" she asks. "She's a delinquent that's been stalking about the school for a while."

**- She went that way.**

**Haven't seen her.**

"Thank you," Miss Chevreuse says. "I wish you the best of luck during the summoning today."

Miss Chevreuse rushes after the girl, ending the conversation and leaving me alone.

"Hmm… Delinquent stalker? What would someone like that even want at this school? Ah, my head hurts. I must have hit the floor harder than I thought. Focus. Summon a familiar now, worry about headaches later."

I try to shake off the headache, which works about as well as you expect. I switch to plan "ignore headache" and head for the courtyard. The summonings went pretty well for everyone, I'd say. Tabitha summoned a dragon which was pretty impressive. I… probably won't get anything that impressive. I'm not hoping for anything that impressive, I just want to summon something. Eventually it's my turn. I try to swallow my anxiousness and perform the ritual. Every step is performed flawlessly and exactly as it should be. The fact that the spell ended in explosion was… well I won't say it wasn't expected, but it certainly wasn't what I was looking for. Eventually the smoke clears and the results of my summoning are bared for all to witness. It was some kid. When I say kid I mean he looked around my age, but still.

"W-what just happened?" the kid asks as he pulls himself into a sitting position.

"… Did the Zero just summon a commoner?" one of the students in the audience asks.

"She totally did!"

And then the crowd starts laughing at me. I fail to see what's so funny. I summoned something. Sure, it was quite possibly the most useless thing I could summon but… it's something, isn't it?

"Ms. Valliere," Professor Colbert, the teacher supervising the familiar summoning, begins. "Congratulations, you did succeed in the familiar summoning spell. I don't suppose I need to tell you the next step?"

**Please don't.**

**- Do I really have to?**

"For better or worse, yes you do," Colbert says. "This young gentleman is your familiar, is he not?"

"Familiar?" the boy asks. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I choose not to answer him and finish the ritual.

"My name is Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers; bless this humble being and make him my familiar."

I touch my wand to his forehead, and before he can ask any more questions, give him a quick kiss on the lips. He seems incredibly confused and gets ready to ask a question, but before he can he starts screaming in pain. It appears the familiar mark is carving itself onto the back of his left hand. You know, I never actually thought about whether or not getting the runes was a painful process. I guess now I know.

"And with that, the second year familiar summoning ritual has concluded," Colbert announces. "Students, you are dismissed and may return to your rooms."

The students scatter and head for their dorms. The ones that choose to levitate away look back at me and laugh. Wow, what jerks. Well, at least only those with familiars that can actually fly after them are flying away. Speaking of familiars…

"Wh-what the heck was that?!" My familiar asks. "They just floated away!"

"Yes, that is indeed how _some_ mages choose to travel," I say, trying to hide my annoyance at the fact that I can't do that.

"Mages? What are you talking about?!" he exclaims. "What's going on here?! Who are you?! What is this?! What did you do to me?!"

***Smack him***

**So noisy, just shut up already!**

**- Calm down.**

"Calm down?!" he asks. "How do you expect me to… No, you're right. Freaking out isn't going to help me at all."

My familiar takes a deep breath, and then another. He still seems on edge, but he does seem a bit calmer. That's good, he was starting to annoy me.

"So um… who are you?" he asks.

"Like I said earlier, my name is Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere," I repeat. "And what am I supposed to call you? Familiar isn't a fun word to repeat over and over again."

"R-right. My name is Saito Hiraga, it's a pleasure to meet you."

**- I wish I could say the same.**

**Nice to meet you.**

"C-come on, I have no idea what's going on, can't you be a little nicer than that?" he asks.

"No."

"Of course. Could you at least tell me what's going on?" he asks.

"I might as well," I say. "Come on, I suppose I have a lot to tell you."

I start heading back to my room and Saito follows me. A human for a familiar. What am I supposed to do with that? At least it's a unique summon. I suppose that's a good consolation prize.

Despite the fact that my new familiar should be the most prominent thing in my mind at the moment, some other thoughts start creeping in. I just completed the familiar contract and bound this boy as my familiar. Contract. Didn't that man with the long nose mention a contract in my dream? Will I be seeing him and the assistant tonight? No, of course not. It was just a weird dream, I don't need to worry about any of that. First I have to worry about my stupid new familiar.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes:**

All right, some plot! … Sort of. Spoiler for the chapter, I suppose, so read the chapter first then come back to this. Anyway, the random girl who showed up last chapter introduced herself, Louise had some conversation with people and then discovered a dead body.

Elise is a character that exists because I needed to fill up one last slot on the social link checklist. I had every arcana filled up, except for hers, so I brought her in to fill that missing link. There was almost certainly a character I could have pulled from Familiar of Zero, or even Shin Megami Tensei to fill it up, but oh well. Since she's a social link, we'll be seeing more of her later.

Louise had conversations with quite a few people today. She brought Saito up to speed on his situation, and later talked with Kirche. Fun fact: if Louise had picked the "Try to talk to Saito" option instead of sleeping or studying then she would have earned a few Saito points right off the bat, as well as learned that Saito's from another world. Since she skipped that option, she's still in the dark about that for now, and Saito remains at zero affection points.

The Kirche conversation also had some interesting points, what with Louise not blowing up at Kirche like she normally would. So, if you're familiar with the source material, you might be aware of the fact that in canon Louise is… not a very pleasant person. I mean, in the light novels she gets a lot better, but she starts off as a brat. In this story she's not going to be quite like that. What I was going for with Louise's personality this story was making her a lot calmer, thus less likely to blow someone up. Still a bit mean, considering the amount of jackass options she'll have available, but a lot calmer. Or something like that.

As for the dead body, we'll get to that a bit more next chapter. See you then.

**Chapter 1**

"So um… can you explain to me what's going on?" Saito asked once we had entered my room. "Just… what is any of this?"

I sat on my bed, took a deep breath and thought about how to answer that.

**Explain gently.**

**- Explain like he's a complete idiot.**

"Alright so, since you've apparently never stepped out of whatever backwoods swamp you were born in-"

"H-hey!" Saito protests.

"I'll be gracious enough to tell you where you are," I say. "You are currently at Tristain Academy, where all sorts of students come to learn how to be proper mages. Today was the day the seconds years summon my familiar, and I was unfortunate enough to get something as unreliable-looking as you."

"What did I ever do to you to piss you off so much?" Saito asks me.

"Yes, you showed up," I tell him. "I was supposed to summon something big, majestic and amazing and I got you. Tabitha got a dragon. A dragon! And all I could summon was… you."

"Well… when you put it like th- wait, a dragon?!" Saito exclaims.

"Yes, a dragon," I say. "It's not a very common summon, considering only the most powerful and skilled mages can something that powerful."

"N-no, that's not what I was talking about!" Saito says. "Are you trying to tell me that dragons exist?"

"Are you trying to tell me that they don't?" I ask.

"Of course not!" Saito yells at me. "Those are just things out of fantasy novels!"

"… I'm so, so sorry," I say. "I'm sorry that I pulled you from whatever backwoods town you lived in that is so isolated and unevolved that you don't even know what the world is like."

"Tokyo is not a backwoods town!" Saito insists.

"… Tokyo? Where is that even supposed to be?" I ask.

"You're kidding right?" Saito asks. "How can you not know where Tokyo is? It's in Japan. You know, Japan?"

"Never heard of it," I tell him. "Is that some small collection of towns? I imagine if it was small enough it wouldn't show up on the maps so I wouldn't know about it."

"It's not small at all it's… Louise."

"Yes, familiar?" I ask.

"Why are there two moons rising?" Saito asks me while pointing at something out the window.

I look out the window and see the pink and blue moons starting to rise up over the horizon. It's not that late yet, the sun is still up after all, but I suppose it's around the time the moons would start rising.

"Yes, two moons certainly are rising," I note. "That's how the day and night cycle works. The sun comes up and it's day, and then the moons come up and it's nighttime."

"N-no, that's not what I'm asking, why are there two moons, there's only supposed to be one!" Saito says.

"… No there isn't," I say.

"Yes! There's only one moon! It's always been like that!" Saito says.

"You are very stupid individual I'll have you know," I tell him. "There's always been two moons."

"That's… That's impossible," Saito says. Whatever fervor he seemed to have earlier is slowly starting to fade.

**Are you finally realizing you're an idiot?**

**- Hey, are you okay?**

"I'm… I'm fine," Saito says, not exactly sounding fine. "I just… I just need a moment to think."

Saito sits down and starts thinking really hard about something. What's his problem? I mean… I guess I feel a bit guilty about essentially kidnapping him from his home but, the familiar summoning spell is an ancient, powerful ritual. It would obviously take something that could actually live as your familiar and not care about wanting to go back home, right?

I suppose that if he has any problems with being my familiar he'll let me know when he's done thinking. Not that it matters, he's stuck as my familiar whether he wants it or not. Or rather, whether _I_ want it or not. Oh well. I have a few hours before nighttime, what should I do?

**Go to sleep early.**

**- Study.**

**Try to talk to Saito.**

Might as well get some studying done. The school year goes on, as per usual. I don't exactly have the magical prowess to afford slacking off when it comes to my grades. And such I crack open a few of my textbooks and start studying. Saito was completely quiet the entire evening, which was nice. If he was as loud and annoying as he was earlier than there's no way I'd get any studying done.

I studied for a few hours and once it was properly nighttime I changed into my nightdress and crawled under the covers and went to sleep. Saito didn't have a bed, but I did prepare a pile of hay for whatever familiar I summoned, so it's not like he has nowhere to sleep.

***Scene Break***

I woke up the next day feeling nice and refreshed. What a refreshing sleep. I don't think I've had that nice of a sleep in years. Okay, time to start getting ready for classes today. … I should probably check on my familiar. He seemed kind of upset about something last night.

I hop out of my bed and see Saito fast asleep on the pile of hay near my bed. He seems completely asleep, I'd have a hard time waking him up. Still, he is my familiar and I shouldn't just leave him in my room. I decide to wake him up, and I do so by kicking him in the side a few times.

"Ow! H-hey!" Saito yells at me as he wakes up. "What was that for?"

"You were asleep, so I woke you up," I tell him. "It's time to get up and go about our day."

"Did you really have to wake me up by kicking me?" Saito asks.

"No, but I figured it'd be the quickest option," I tell him. "Was I wrong?"

"I guess not," Saito says. "That doesn't mean it was the best idea you could have gone with."

"It worked," I say. "Not come on, I have classes to go to, and since you are my familiar, you have to accompany me."

"… Fine," Saito says. "I'll go."

"Good familiar," I say.

I grab the things I need and head for my first class. Classes were fine and went as usual. I didn't even blow up that many classes on accident. Eventually we finally got to the class period that was reserved for students to get to know their familiars better. I was sitting at a table in the courtyard, and Saito was sitting at the table with me.

"So, feel like you've learned anything about where you are?" I ask.

"I guess," Saito says. "It's still too weird for me to completely grasp, but I think I'm getting it."

"Getting what?" I ask.

"Nothing," Saito says. "Hey, you mind if I take a walk around? I want to take a look around the academy."

**- Go ahead.**

**No, you're stuck with me.**

"Thank you," he says. "I'll meet you back at your room, okay?"

"Sure," I say. "Go have fun, or something."

Saito gets up and walks off. I suppose having a familiar who at least knows the layout of the academy is fine. Plus it gives me some time away from him and his bombardment of questions. Seriously, he kept asking about every single thing the teachers talked about. Does he really know that little about everything? Seriously, just what backwoods did he spawn from? I'm not even sure I want to know. Whatever, I'll just sit here and read a book or something. I grab a book from my bag and start leafing through it. It's a nice day for something like this. It's a bright, sunny day, not too windy. There's even a pretty, blue butterfly floating about. You don't see butterflies around the academy that much, they seem to get scared off by all the spells people throw about. I can't blame them, I'd be intimidated as well.

"What'cha reading?" someone asks.

"Just a book," I say. "Just a little something to kill some free time."

"Really? Lemme see!" they ask as they try worming their way over my shoulder to get to my book.

"H-hey! Personal space!" I exclaim as I push the person away. "Wait…"

"Hey you," the girl says. "Pleasure to see you again."

"You're that delinquent, stalker girl the staff was looking for," I say.

The delinquent girl had black hair that was tied back in a ponytail. She was wearing a sleeveless, black dress as well a red scarf loosely wrapped around her neck. Considering she's hanging around the school, but isn't wearing the uniform I think that makes it obvious that she doesn't go here.

"I am not a delinquent!" the girl defends herself. "I just happened to be hanging around. Thanks for the save back then, I almost got caught and thrown out. That would have been awful."

"Why would it have been awful?" I ask. "Were you perhaps looking for someone to stalk?"

"No one ever looks for someone to stalk, it just happens," she says. "I'm Elise, and I'm thankful for your help."

"Louise, a pleasure to meet you," I say.

"Oh, you don't need to introduce yourself, I already know you," Elise says. "Everyone who's been anywhere near the academy for any length of time knows about the Zero."

**- I'm not a zero.**

**Shut up!**

I should be blowing up at her, getting really angry, but I can't muster up the energy. After a year of being called a zero and mocked and everything I guess I've just been worn down. Yeah, that's it. I just don't care anymore. I can only get angry at something for so long before I just get tired of it.

"Yes you are," Elise tells me. "A complete zero."

"No need to keep rubbing it in," I grumble.

"That's not an insult!" she says. "I think that's pretty awesome. Zero's a really cool number."

"There's nothing cool about being a zero," I tell her.

"Well, if you say so," Elise says. "I'm sure you'll come around eventually. I've gotten everything I need from this school. If you need me I'll be hanging around town. See you around, Zero!"

Elise waves goodbye and runs off. I sigh and put my book away. I'm done for the day. I just want to go back to my room, crawl under the covers and stop existing. I was so excited to get caught up on some reading in peace, but then that stupid stalker has to come in and ruin it. Fine, whatever, I'll just head back to my room.

And since I'm not allowed to enjoy as much as a simple walk back to my room, I get interrupted there as well. Just a few turns away from the hallway to my room, Kirche and Tabitha were waiting for me.

"Hello, Zero," Kirche says with a smile.

"Hello, Kirche," I say. "Anything I can help you with?"

"Oh no, I was just curious about something," Kirche says.

"And what would that be?" I ask.

"Familiar," Tabitha says.

"Exactly right," Kirche says. "We were just curious about your familiar. A human, wasn't it?"

"Yes, my familiar is an ordinary human," I say. "What of it?"

"That's so interesting, isn't it?" Kirche asks. "Though I heard an interesting rumor going around that it's nothing more than some commoner you payed off to pretend to be your familiar."

"Why would I pay to have a human familiar?" I ask. "If I'm going to pay for a familiar, why wouldn't I go for the best one I could get, like a lion, or a griffon or something?"

"I never said I believed them, I simply thought I'd bring it up," Kirche says. "After all, some people have trouble believing that the Zero could ever do anything correctly. Though to be fair, it's hard to call whatever you did a success so I suppose we can still call you Zero."

"I'm not a zero," I grumble.

"What's with that reaction?" Kirche asks.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I don't know, I was expecting something a bit more fiery, as per usual," Kirche says. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine, just tired," I say. "So please, leave me alone."

"Oh fine," Kirche says. "We'll try again when you're feeling better. You're more fun when you're feisty, isn't that right Tabitha?"

"No comment," Taibtha says.

"Well, we'll just be going, I suppose," Kirche says. "Get well soon, Zero. Good luck with your familiar. See you when you're nice an feisty again!"

Kirche walks away and after a quick goodbye Tabitha walks away as well. Why do those two even hang out? I don't get it. Whatever, I'm heading back to my room.

I walk down another few hallways and stop when I smell something odd. Smells like… blood? I start carefully walking through the hallway, my wand at the ready. It could be nothing, someone may have just gotten a nasty paper cut or something. The hallway turns left and I stop right before making the turn. The smell of blood is really strong now. I really don't want to turn this corner. I steal my nerves and turn the corner. Painting the floor of the hallways was a trail of blood that led to a wall where a student's body was slumped against the wall.


End file.
